


soaking in the glory of it all

by lillaseptember



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Cuddle Pile, Gen, apart from the fact that i Know that those two idiots are in love with each other, like this is literally just me processing the comic ending by projecting my feelings onto My Boys, me being emo, the nurseydex isn't really explicitly addressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:21:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23603014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillaseptember/pseuds/lillaseptember
Summary: The frogs are leaving their Junior year behind.Or; I'm Emo.
Relationships: Chris "Chowder" Chow & Derek "Nursey" Nurse & William "Dex" Poindexter, Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 55





	soaking in the glory of it all

It was oddly quiet after center ice. Dex, already in full-blown captain’s mode even though he would stubbornly deny it to anyone who dared to say so directly to his face (which Nursey had learnt through extensive experience), corralled the rest of the team off to their dorms, making extra sure that the slightly trashed waffles were safely tucked away for the night. Ollie and Wicks had disappeared to their attic to- Nursey is not even going to entertain the rest of that thought, even if it was most likely not even close to as sordid as his sometimes too imaginative brain could run away to. Bitty had just smiled at them all, smile still watery but so, so genuine, before he had locked himself away in his room with his phone at the ready, his thumb most likely already on Jack’s speed dial.

Chowder had clasped Nursey’s shoulder, and Nursey had grasped onto his arm in return, and, for once, Nursey could appreciate the fact that words were redundant. Chowder had smiled at him as he had squeezed Nursey’s shoulder tighter, before explaining that he had to call Cait. Nursey let him go and waved him off, watching him disappear into his room too before stepping into his own, quietly closing the door behind himself.

Just staring into the dark room for a few moments, he then quickly shook the weird tension out of his shoulders and flicked the lights on. This was chill. It was _chill._

Picking up some stray socks from the floor and tossing them into his already overfull hamper, he quickly gave up the mental strain of actually trying to be productive, picked up one of the countless of stray books that were always strewn around his room ( _his_ room, not _theirs_ , not anymore, hadn’t been for a while now) and then collapsed into his bed, trying very hard not to think of anything at all.

Nursey wasn’t sure of how long he had been reading, was only aware of how the strophes and stanzas had slowly been replaced by the insides of his eyelids as he had quietly succumbed to the pressure of his creeping fatigue, but was quickly startled into awareness by his bedroom door being unceremoniously slammed open.

Letting his book fall the rest of the way down onto his chest, not bothering to bookmark where he had a vague memory of leaving off, he was only a little surprised by the sight that greeted him when he inclined his head to see what the ruckus was about. Dex was marching his way over the threshold as if he owned the place (which he had, once, at least in part), a tight hold on Chowder’s wrist as he was dragging him along. Stalking up to where Nursey was lying in his now lone single bed, Dex pushed very purposefully at Chowder’s shoulders until Chowder gets the hint and expertly climbed over Nursey’s reclined form in order to nestle himself between Nursey and the wall, as if he’d done it a million times before.

(Which he had.)

Dex, meanwhile, collapsed roughly on Nursey’s other side, the three of them really much too large to fit into the slim bed frame, and Dex ended up mostly on top of Nursey, one of his elbows digging into his ribs and Nursey’s abandoned book gliding down to prod painfully somewhere around his hip.

Nursey, halfway crushed under Dex’s weight, only had time to wheeze out a strangled “Wha-” before Chowder looked over at the both of them with a meaningful look.

“Dex is freaking out.”

“Shut up,” was Dex’s immediate reply, but he hadn’t bothered looking up from where he was still sprawled out over Nursey, and his voice lacked any of the heat that signaled that he really meant what he was saying.

Looking over to where Chowder was still getting comfortable on his left, a sight that was so achingly familiar in its normalcy, and to where Dex’s face was still hidden where it was buried in Nursey’s chest, as if they hadn’t been caught up in a silent war all day ever since Nursey had accidentally eaten the last egg at breakfast, the pieces of this abrupt invasion of his living space quickly fell into place.

“So frog cuddle pile it is.”

“Freaking out,” Chowder repeated.

“Shut. _Up_ ,” Dex growled, but the effect was entirely lost due to the way he snuggled even deeper into Nursey’s collarbone.

Chowder gave him another meaningful look, and Nursey slowly relaxed back into his pillows, more than accustomed to his role in this particular ritual. Chowder eventually got himself comfortable, the back of his head bumping into Nursey’s own, and Dex continued to just breathe methodically into the hollow of Nursey’s throat.

“So, Dexy,” Nursey slowly started once Dex’s breathing had finally evened out, his fingers quietly dancing through the fiery strands that their owner always so carefully cultivated, a privilege he always cherished during these moments. “What’s the freaking out about?”

Dex didn’t immediately answer, just continued to wordlessly press his face into Nursey’s chest, his steady breathing a soft rhythm against Nursey’s chest. And that, that prolonged silence, would have quietly aggravated Nursey a couple of years ago, hell even just a couple of months ago. Knowing Dex to be perfectly capable of answering, but withholding anyway, spurring Nursey to carefully start needling him, until it wasn’t careful anymore, until it was actively egging him and he would be pushing all of Dex’s wrong buttons and they’d be headfirst into a full blown fight with Nursey barely knowing how they ended up there.

But, they’d changed. They’d grown. They’d learned. It sounded ridiculous, that a few short months could change so much, but they had.

If anyone had told Nursey at the start of the year that Dex would end up as his new captain by a unanimous vote he would probably have laughed in their face. And yet. Here they were.

Dex eventually exhaled sharply before propping his chin up on Nursey’s chest, staring deeply into Nursey’s wall, as if it held all the secrets of the universe.

“That’s going to be us next year.”

And wasn’t that opening up the big black hole that Nursey had done his best of skirting around all night. Giving thoughts words meant giving them life, and this was one of those thoughts that Nursey had wanted to keep buried deep, deep underground in the depths of his subconscious for as long as humanly possible.

But this cuddle pile wasn’t for his benefit, as so he just smiled as he wound his finger’s a little more firmly into Dex’s hair.

“Don’t you think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself there, Poindexter?” he asked, tugging lightly on the fine strands between his fingers. Dex immediately rewarded him with his cutting glare. “You might want to actually start your captain tenure before you start thinking about kissing the ice.”

“Shut up,” Dex ground out, but even to Nursey’s ears, which were attuned to catching every single nuance of Dex’s aggravations, it almost sounded fond.

“We’ll stick together though, won’t we?” Moving as one, something they rarely did out of skates or off the ice, they both looked over to Chowder, and Nursey was surprised to be met with a delicateness that they hadn’t seen or heard in years. It was so easy to forget, with how strong and sure of himself he had become these last couple of years, that Chowder was just as unsure of the future as the rest of them were at times. “Even if we end up in different parts of the country? We’ll still stick together, right?”

Not bearing to see that insecure look on his face even a second longer, Nursey couldn’t help but grin at him too.

“’Course we will,” he said as he scooted down lower into the bed, winding his free arm around Chowder’s shoulders and made use of the hand he still had in Dex’s hair to pull his head down onto his chest again. “We might be Wellies for life, but this” he said, gesturing as well as he could with his chin at the little triangle of them, “we’ll be frogs forever.”

Chowder chuckled softly, and it was one of those sounds that Nursey knew he would remember for the rest of his life, before he also scooted down lower until his position mirrored that of Dex’s, resting his head on that soft spot between Nursey’s collarbone and armpit. “I like that.”

“Just promise me we won’t name next year’s batch something ridiculous,” Dex said, his eyes already closed as he shifted more neatly onto his side, fitting himself more naturally against Nursey, and Nursey noticed that his book was no longer digging into his hip.

“No can do, captain, my captain,” he replied, smiling down at him, and for once didn’t have a single goddamn care if it was loopy. “We’ve got traditions to uphold.”

Dex grunted unhappily, but didn’t otherwise protest as he finally stilled, having gotten as comfortable as was possible with all three of them crammed together in Nursey’s tiny bed.

Nursey had half a mind asking if it wasn’t better if they moved this down to Dex’s alleged 5-star resort, but was sidetracked by Chowder’s whispered “I love you guys” as he also finally settled.

And nestled in between these two guys that he, frankly, was also quite ridiculously fond of, Nursey finally allowed the quiet of the night get to him too. He was careful not to skirt too closely to thoughts of senior years and ice kissing and graduations, but with Chowder’s weight next to him and the feeling of Dex’s hair under his fingertips, it was easier than he ever could have imagined.

Actually, letting sleep finally overtake him that night was the easiest thing he had ever done.

**Author's Note:**

> So that sure was a webcomic, huh.
> 
> Also sajkdsbjkdsajkbdsjkad I actually wrote this post-4.24, but now knowing that Ollie and Wicks were actually most likely engaged during their graduation?? VINDICATION.
> 
> [tumblr](https://stolligaseptember.tumblr.com/)


End file.
